The global community is at a critical moment in its pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More than a year into the global pandemic, millions of lives have been lost, the human and economic toll has been unprecedented, and recovery efforts so far have been uneven, inequitable and insufficiently geared towards achieving sustainable development.

The 2020 Catalogue of Services provides an overview of some of the tried and tested services UN-Habitat offers to support national governments, local governments, and stakeholders. UN-Habitat receives requests for assistance to address particular challenges faced by cities, regions and countries, therefore this Catalogue is divided into sub-sections to allows readers to quickly locate services that are most relevant for their context and priorities.

The Special Human Settlements Programme for the Palestinian People launches its strategic framework for working with the Government of Palestine and other stakeholders. It focuses on analysing, designing, and implementing fit-for-purpose interventions contributing towards UN-Habitat’s global strategic outcomes and sustainable urbanisation in Palestine.

The World Cities Report 2020 convincingly affirms that well-planned, managed, and financed cities and towns create value that can be harnessed to build resilient cities that can bounce back from the devastating impacts of pandemics, improve the quality of life of all residents, and can be leveraged in the fight against poverty, inequality, unemployment, climate change and other pressing global challenges.

This is UN-Habitat’s first annual progress report on the implementation of the strategic plan 2020-2023. The report sets out progress towards planned results against indicator targets for 2020.

he future of the world’s population will undeniably continue to be urban albeit with a variety of challenges such as inequalities, climate change, unemployment, including numerous shocks such as floods and drought, conflict, and macroeconomic challenges. In 2050, 68% of the world’s population is expected to reside in urban areas, up from 56% in 2020.

Based on the global and Arab housing strategies, Egypt is on the lead drawing a road map towards achieving the goals of adequate housing for all. In 2014, Egypt started preparing the Egyptian Housing Profile as a first step to monitor and analyze the sector’s components and challenges in Egypt. This was conducted with the participation of all governmental agencies, academic entities and representatives of relevant local communities.